Caro the Movie Critic

Bradley Cooper as this year's chef.  This is a sample that tries to get your attention of you haven't seen before, putting in a little of food metaphors. However, there are numerous food and chef reality shows that tries to get you into the passion of cooking and baking something that you or others have never experienced before. It's fusion of flavors and taste that will get you craving for more. However, I have seen some movies regarding cooking and passion for cooking and food itself that stirred my creative vibes and taste buds into a soul search for something different. But, this is not a movie that earns a Michelin star for originality because this movie does not urge to crave for more. Adam Jones (Bradley Cooper) is a rising chef who had the ambition to become a great chef with a great reputation in the culinary world in Paris. However, his background is dark as he succumbs to some tempestuous activities such as alcoholism, sex and drugs and destroys the relatio...

Listen to me, Spider-Man. You're in a real movie. The house market is inconsistent and not as solid as in the past which creates angst and stress for real estate workers. However, in the process of evicting owners, real estate operators and repo men have to do their duty but maybe deep down inside, I mean, real deep down, they feel bad towards the evicted home owners as this puts a blockade in their lives financially and physically. This is a movie that experiences the situation placed on a former home owner dealing with the consequences of financial strain. However, the director wants to place you in that dark situation, and even though, it has a strong statement to say about that, the movie throw aways that solid piece of reality and puts the material down with a mixed message towards the last third of the movie. Dennis Nash (Andrew Garfield), has been recently let go from his job as a construction worker in Orlando and is a single father. He and his son, Connor (Noah Lomax...

Vin Diesel trying to combat another bad movie.  Um, Vin Diesel, as a witch-hunter, is cursed with eternal life in the 14th century? Sounds sweet, eh? Not really. This is the second movie where eternal life is brought upon a character, the first movie being the better, but not quite unforgettable The Age of Adeline  with Blake Lively and Harrison Ford. Eternal life is sad because you have to persuade yourself to witness about every event and every tragedy in your life, parents' life and friends' life. You don't get to go on that same parallel journey. But, let's not talk psychology and philosophy. This is just another general wasted film in a niche of fantasy movies. But, who is the niche? Kaulder (Vin Diesel) is an 800-year-old witch hunter cursed with eternal life by the Witch Queen (Julie Engelbrecht). A bunch of dudes enter a lair like it is another LOTR sequence except the whole sequence is incomprehensible and not as engaging. But, then we have to wait until ...

Jack Black and the kids in trouble.  I must confess that I have not been a fan of R.L. Stan's Goosebumps series because when I read the books, I never could connect to the humor and the parody of the horror genre as how kids witnessed the all these type of mawkish Halloween characters spooking the younger characters into terror and belief. But, I believe R.L. Stein said that they never put the characters into situations where they are involved with death or something life-threatening. I believe that is refreshing. It is sort of a premise for a Saturday morning cartoon. We do not get as many fun Halloweens for younger audiences as we should but this movie is right for that demographic as this version contains enough fun material and source to control our attention and center ourselves into that ride. It is an admirable and fun movie. Zach Cooper (Dylan Minnette) and his mom, Gale (Amy Ryan) move to Madison, Delaware where Gale heads a new job as a vice principal at a high scho...

Tom Hanks defending a Russian guy.  Steven Spielberg: He is a master of crafting a blockbuster that will entertain movie audiences and get them jittery and excited throughout the whole experience: Raiders of the Lost Ark , E.T. , Jurassic Park , Catch Me if You Can . Also, he knows how to craft exceptional dramas: Saving Private Ryan , Munich , Lincoln and of course, Schindler's List . But, also, he has a little bit of sci-fi background: Close Encounters , Minority Report , War of the Worlds , A.I.  I could list about the filmography for him but that will be for later in the year or maybe next year. But, the Cold War itself is a hard topic to tackle because we are too familiar in what happens from a general perspective. However, he found a hidden story in the history of the Cold War that is suspenseful in a quiet manner and makes into a well-crafted and solid thriller with some issues in the second half. It's not top-tier Spielberg, but it's a very good Spielberg movie....

Snow? But, I thought it was a Halloween movie. Guillermo Del Toro is a director that is sort of overrated and I emphasize "sort of" because he is definitely a heck of a great and visionary art director. However, his vision and artistry overcomes the material and the pace becomes slow and self-indulgent. He's too infatuated with his vision and his material. He has sort of an inconsistent record with his films, his great movies being Pan's Labyrinth , the Hellboy series and Pacific Rim . Mimic and Blade II did not do it for me. Now, with his latest movie, as I was anticipating this whole movie as the trailer was scary, the movie, as a whole, had too much interest in its visuals but very little interest in its storyline, as it is neither scary nor interesting. Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska) has encountered a terrifying visual experience seeing his mother's ghost, who warned her, "BEWARE OF CRIMSON'S PEAK!" Now, later, in her adult youth 14 years l...

Michael Fassbender as Steve Jobs. Wow! It is sort of ironic and a bit of deja vu as I am typing this review because the first Jobs movie with Ashton Kutcher is the movie I first reviewed on the blog and it is a little skeptical and humbling to review another movie about the genius behind Apple and its products. But, biopics have become a bit too epic and bloated in its material and retreats to the Hollywood conventions of inserting romance and too much substance into the movie and becomes safe for Oscar consideration. With this movie, it goes for the throat with the pitch-perfect dialogue and non-merciless characteristics. This movie is extraordinary to behold. Director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin have structured the movie into three different events. They are all behind-the-scenes before the product launches of the MacIntosh in 1984, the NeXT cube in 1988 and the iMac in 1998. Steve Jobs (Michael Fassbender) has to deal with the situations on-hand regarding his pro...

Keanu Reeves sandwiched between two beautiful ladies. Knock knock, who's there? Well, a complicated issue that is right outside an innocent bystander's house. When placed in a situation where a stranger's issue becomes your problem, the outstanding etiquette is taken ahold of that homeowner and invites the stranger or strangers in. But, this is 2015. Technology has steamrollered America by letting the whole domestic population use it to our advantage. Isn't that suspicious that strangers are just dropping into your house? Hmmm... Eli Roth (yeah, the same director who made that detestable The Green Inferno ) has directed another movie with a trashy fun and erotic premise but the female characters' exploitations drives the plot into a weird and forced anticlimax that belittles the audience with frustration. There's some guilty pleasure in the movie but there's some insecurity in the end. Evan Webber (Keanu Reeves) and his wife, Karen (Ignacia Allamand) a...

What is the origin of Peter Pan? Have you heard of the tales of Peter Pan? I have when I was a little kid but I do not recall even questioning how he got into Never Land in the first place. I always wondered or maybe ventured some guesses. But, reading and watching the Disney classic, Peter Pan , when I was a kid made me use my imagination of what it would be like to cross paths with many inhabitants in Never Land. It would be half-fun and half-suspicious because I will always wonder how all the characters be on the island in the first place. However, it seems that, while watching the movie, all the cast members were in different universes in this blotchy CGI mess of an originated story. Peter (Levi Miller) is an orphan who is miserable with his companions and also with his main nun, Mother Barnabas (Kathy Burke). Peter finds out that Mother Barnabas is hoarding extra food for herself and he and Nibs (Lewis McDougall) uncover food and coins. Later on, while the boys sleep at nigh...

Here's my plan for this daunting challenge. You have to dare to dream especially in a task that is life-threatening. The reason alone for performing such a life-threatening challenge is crazy itself and ludicrous mostly for the purpose of being more than a human being. What will he/she achieve? Fame, stardom, maybe get some celebrity endorsements. But, the event depends on the location on where this person can achieve such an impossible event that is borderline maniacal. This movie establishes a story that is muddled and patchy with its set-up as to who the daring person is but then redeems itself, which is a rarity for most movies today, in its second-half, especially in "The Walk" sequence. It's a quarter-baked, but 3/4's satisfying and entertaining movie which is enough to endorse the movie. We go to Philippe Petit's (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) story as we go on a journey with him as to what he becomes that led to the event of The Walk between The Two Towe...

Mommy?!? This is a short review. I do not want to share a medium-sized review because there's so much going on in this little film from Austria that leaves so much imagination into the mind of a horror fanatic. A great theory would bring upon a child's mind is how long have you known your mother? Well, it is an attraction and also sort of a reflex as there is a mental relationship between mother and baby, more likely that the mother has to take care of the baby using her instincts to protect from other strangers. But, this movie challenges the children as if their mother is the stranger. Or is it really their mother? A mother (Susanne Wuest) has undergone facial surgery and she returns to her isolated, modern house with her ten-year-old twins, Elias and Lukas (Elias and Lukas Schwarz). Her head and body is covered with bandages except her eyes and mouth. The twins are uncomfortable with their mother's appearance and they notice her strange behavior. Even though it i...

Matt Damon stranded on a planet...again.  Mars. The red planet. The fourth planet in the solar system. If you have not heard from the news, there has been reports that NASA has found water in Mars. Anything may be possible on that planet where the environment could be palpable or inhospitable to the specimen in a suit. Even though, initially, Mars does not look like a great place to live, it creates an environment in which some of the conditions can equal the challenging task into turning a bleak situation of being stranded to an accomplishment in which the main character rejoices. This movie could have potentially and easily have been degraded into a terrible Hollywood science fiction movie. But, the bottom line is that it is a great outlook of an enthusiastic astronaut stranded in another environment using intelligent dialogue and humor to entertain all audiences. It is director Ridley Scott's best movie in a while. The movie commences on a landing site called Acidalia Pl...

Tracking down some hitmen. There's a system in which the law overcomes everything and they do it or try to do it by-the-books. In a time where "war on drugs" exist in our reality, two little armies or gangs will be as corrupt as ever to liberate themselves in the position to kill each other until one gang or member is left standing.  Sicario , the Spanish word meaning "hitman", chronicles a point in time in which the men have been overtaken by the drugs that is invested in the U.S.-Mexican border. This movie is a superb piece of filmmaking with a bleak view of what's going on with the psyche of these people involved in the little "War of Drugs". They are flawed and complicated and it is a great character study on two characters. Kate Macer (Emily Blunt), an FBI agent, is raiding a house where they suspect that there are hostage in the house of cartel leader, Manuel Diaz (Bernardo P. Sacarino). They move in with a rescue team and burst in thro...